SOLVING YOUR BROWNSTONE’S I-CARD MYSTERY
******************************************************************************************************************************** Brownstone Detectives investigates the history of our clients’ homes. The story you are about to read was composed from research conducted in the course of one of those investigations. Do you know the history of YOUR house? ******************************************************************************************************************************** One of the many weapons in the arsenal of the New York City old house detective is an official city document known as the I-Card. Many homeowners have heard of them, few know what they are, and even less have ever seen one. The reason is simple – the I-Card was never meant for public consumption. WHAT IS THE “I-CARD”? The I-Card is a paper record that the City of New York used, starting in 1902, for documenting the required building improvements of tenements and multiple-dwelling buildings, and for regulating the use of these type buildings. The I-Card came about around the turn of the last century when the “progressives” started focusing on building codes, sanitary conditions, and safety issues in the tenements. The Tenement Act of 1901 regulated these issues, requiring old tenement building (pre-1901) to bring their buildings up to this code and post-1901 buildings to be built according to the provisions in the new Act. So, the city came up with a way to track the required improvements that certain buildings had to have made. (The “I” in “I-Card” refers to “improvements made” on a structure after its construction.) What was being regulated here? Primarily things like making sure that a tenement had proper and adequate fire-escapes and […]
